Board ofScrutiny

Noon, Thursday 28 October 2004

New SCR, SelwynCollege

Present: Stephen Cowley, Margaret Glendenning,John Little, Timothy Milner, Saskia Murk-Jansen, David Phillipson, Nick Pyper,Jennifer Rigby, John Spencer (Chairman), Helen Thompson (Secretary)

In attendance: Tessa Payne

1.Apologies

Nicholas Holmes

2.Minutesof previous meeting

Agreed

3.Mattersarising

It was noted that Margaret Glendenning should be recorded aspresent (not as in attendance) at the meeting held on 30 September, as herelection had been witheffect from 15 July 2004.

It was agreed that the Chairman would continue negotiationswith Susan Bowring regarding the filling of the vacancy on the Board – this isexpected to be early in theLent term.

4.NinthReport - Discussion

It was agreed that the comments made regarding the NinthReport at the Discussion on 26 October would be considered in conjunction withthe detailed response from the Council, and that any response would be made inthe Tenth Report.

It was agreed that in future it would be appropriate for theBoard to be more aware of any central committees on which its members sat, andpotential conflicts of interest that might arise, particularly in relation tothose committees that could be criticised.

5.Visitto Director of Personnel

It was noted that the visit to the Director of Personnelwill take place on Monday 1 November from 14.15 – 15.30hrs.

It was noted that the original reasons for proposing theintroduction of HERA across the University were entirely valid (namely toenable the University to reward staff appropriately, to enable it to compete inthe global market, and to provide a robust pay and grading structure), and thatthe concerns of the Board related to the methodology employed, not to HERA itself.

Concerns were also voiced that cost of poor implementationcould be considerably greater than the potential financial penalty for missingthe deadline for HERA’s introduction within the University.

It was agreed that Stephen Cowley would circulate a paperidentifying the issues that might be raised at the meeting, and wouldco-ordinate the responses.

6.Progressto Board response on HERA etc

It was agreed that further work would take place on theBoard’s response to HERA following the meeting with the Director of Personnel.

7.Requestto Secretary to review Board of Graduate Studies

The Board considered the correspondence received by theSecretary voicing concerns about the process of allocating graduate students tocolleges, and the time taken by various trusts to confirm funding to graduatestudents.

It was agreed that a meeting with the Board of GraduateStudies should be requested, and that the Secretary would reply to thecorrespondent advising them of this, but also indicating that the Board areunlikely to be able to assist to any great extent with the concerns raisedregarding student funding.

8.Datesand places of future meetings

The next meeting will be held at noon in the New SCR onThursday 11 November unless otherwise advised.

The Chairman advised the meeting that during the Lent Term he would be unable to attend meetings of the Board onThursdays due to prior commitments. It was agreed that the options of eitherchanging the day the Board meetings were held, or appointing an alternate Chairmanfor the term would be discussed at the next meeting.

9.Anyother business

There was no other business.